ISBN: 1442423463
Pages: 389
Source: Library
Appearance:
Summary:
Cricket’s on a self-imposed break from her longtime boyfriend—but she’s picked a bad week to sort out her love life. For one thing, her mother’s romance is taking center stage: After jilting two previous fiancés, her mom is finally marrying Dan Jax, whom Cricket loves. But as wedding attendees arrive for a week of festivities at a guesthouse whose hippie owners have a sweet, sexy son—Ash—complications arise:
Cricket’s future stepsisters make it clear they’re not happy about the marriage. An old friend decides this is the week to declare his love for Cricket. Grandpa chooses to reveal a big secret at a family gathering. Dan’s ex-wife shows up. And even the dogs—Cricket’s old, ill Jupiter and Dan’s young, lively Cruiser—seem to be declaring war.
While Cricket fears that Dan is in danger of becoming ditched husband-to-be number three, she’s also alarmed by her own desires. Because even though her boyfriend looms large in her mind, Ash is right in front of her....
Hello guys! Today I've got my review of my first Deb Caletti book!! As far as firsts go, this one made a pretty good impression on me! :)
Cricket is really anti-change and there are some things going on between her and her boyfriend that she needs some peace and quiet to think things through. However, this week, her mother happens to be getting married to a guy that Cricket loves so she can't exactly focus on her own love life. To add to the mix, the whole family is going to be spending a week together at a beach house to bond as a family, including Dan, her mother's fiance, and his two daughters. There are a lot of trials that they have to go through as a family before the wedding at the end of the week. And honestly, Cricket doesn't know if she's completely up for a weekend of family bonding.
I decided to pick up a Deb Caletti book because I was in some dire need of contemporary, YA contemporary to be exact. Personally, I didn't think that this completely satisfied me in that field, but I still thoroughly enjoyed the book. It was really fun to see how at the beginning, the beach house contained two broken families, but at the end, they've managed to put aside their differences and become one big happy family, well most of them at least. All I can say is that between Cricket's family and Dan Jax's family, they sure do have the ability to create the craziest of dramas. There's never a dull moment for them which definitely made it super fun.
If you're a dog lover, I think you'll definitely love this book. Each chapter starts off with a letter from Cricket to her boyfriend Janssen (they're kinda in a relationship?) and each letter starts off with a list of things about dogs. You can obviously see how much dogs really mean to her and I will admit that it gets boring after a while because there's only so much you can talk about regarding dogs. But after that list, Cricket recounts the story of her life with Janssen. I've read a lot of reviews about people who just skipped the whole email all together, but I found out that after that long list on dogs, Cricket reveals a lot about herself and about her family. She reveals her fears about the wedding not happening, her frustration at Dan's daughters, and so much more. Among the pages of her emails, you really get to connect with Cricket on a more personal level which I thought was really awesome.
The romance didn't play as big of a part as I had thought it would. I was almost certain that a love triangle would appear between Ash, Cricket, and Janssen. What I didn't anticipate was for Cricket to be so mature. She admitted that she did feel attracted to Ash and even though she and Janssen were taking a break in their relationship, she didn't feel that it was right to "date" Ash. I absolutely applaud Cricket for telling Ash that she was sorting through her relationship problems and that another relationship wasn't the biggest thing on her mind. Sure, it took some time to get to that conclusion, but it's still pretty rare for a character to firmly put her foot down and say no to a pretty damn good looking guy. Instead, the romance focused more on family love. The love that Cricket, Ben, and their mom had with each other and Jupiter. The love that their mom had with Dan Jax. That type of love which is simple in itself, but so complex at the same time.
I would definitely recommend the book if you want a more family based contemporary. This wasn't exactly what I was looking for when I picked it up so it was a bit hard for me to get through. BUT, this book definitely touched me on many levels that I wasn't expecting. With that said, if you're looking for a fluffy contemporary you might want to stay away from this one, but it definitely is a golden story! :)
3.5/5 stars
Foreverly Obsessed,
Riv
Continue to read an excerpt! Pst! It made me cry ;)
A dog - a dog teaches us so much about love. Wordless, imperfect love; love that is constant, love that is simple goodness, love that forgives not only bad singing and embarrassments, but misunderstandings and harsh words. Love that sits and stays and stays and stays, until it finally becomes its own forever. Love, stronger than death. A dog is a four legged reminder that love comes and time passes and then your heart breaks.
Hope you guys enjoyed that little excerpt, I think out of the entire book, this paragraph stood out to me the most. That's all I have, happy reading~
No comments:
Post a Comment